you know how there are times when you think “stuff the rules and choose to completely ignore the Force Organisation Chart” well today was one of those days. Mike was desperate to play his Dark Eldar (P’tooie*) against either my Space Marines (Huzzah!) or the Necrons. I haven’t played in a while and I really fancied a chance to field the Nightbringer, especially as there’s rumours abound that hint at the loss of the C’tan from the Necron Codex. So we agreed on 1800 points and set about putting our models on the table. Since Mikey wanted to play test a DE character named Asdrubael Vect, apparently he’s rather nasty and would give the Necrons a hard time. Mike agreed that if I let him proxy this character he’d let me field three HQ choices rather than the standard two. So two lords, one on a destroyer body, The Nightbringer, 20 Warriors, six Destroyers, three Heavy Destroyers and a Monolith were placed on the table.
We rolled to see who would take first turn, I rolled 4 Mike rolled lower, he then announced that one of Asdrubael Vects' special rules was that an army he had joined could seize the initiative on a roll of 4+, so he re-rolled and got 2. I was definitely taking first turn. The destroyers and warriors advanced on the dark Eldar force, 18 shots from gauss cannon had no effect and of three heavy gauss cannon shots one destroyed the a Raiders Dark Lance. The Nightbringer silently made it’s way to Vects’ Dais of Destruction, but was out of range for any of its fire power to cause any damage to the vehicle. On Mikeys first turn his Reavers screamed across the battlefield, their blade vanes slicing through the metal hides of Necron Warriors and Destroyers, the Hellions moved in on a squad of Destroyers cutting two of them down. The Kabalite Warriors on-board the Raider unleashed 31 splinter rifle shots which felled a total of 8 warriors. At the start of my second turn I restored only three of the fallen Necron Warriors and only lost two of the Destroyers, 1 from each squad. One squad of Destroyers reduced five of the Hellions to dust and then the Heavy destroyers turned their weapons upon the Raider and Vects Dais of Destruction. Gauss fire tore through the hull of the Dais utterly destroying it, leaving only a pile of molten slag that hissed and bubbled as it melted the bodies of the handful of Wyches that were caught in the explosion, some of the Wyches and Vect himself had managed to jump clear of the devastation and braced themselves for more incoming fire. The Monolith, having completed the charging cycle for the gauss flux arc released the energy on the reavers that had felled the warriors, a total of 9 Reavers were struck, 5 of those were melted down to a boiling ooze of flesh and steel. The Nightbringer moved toward the hellions, as it gained ground it sliced through the air with its scythe sending ribbons of ancient energy into the squad, bringing down one of there number, the Hellions sky boards were swift and the ancient monsters attacks could not find purchase on any of them to inflict any damage, the same could not be said for the Hellions, they tore into the star god like wolves on fallen prey, a total of 4 wounds were caused on the Nightbringer. At this point I was worried, not only had I just rolled 5 1s for the Nightbringers attacks, but my rolls were so bad I also failed the four armour saves that I had to make. One of the Necron Lords fired upon the reavers with its Staff of light, failing to bring any of them down, the lord then motioned the remaining five warriors that had accompanied it to attack the Reavers in close assault. A foolhardy endeavour that would result in a stalemate.
The Kabalite Warriors fired again at the Squad of Necron that were close to them, another 31 shots that bought down another five warriors. Vect and his remaining Wyches made an effort to assault the Nightbringer, but even as they moved in a wall of force pushed the Wyches, Vect and the Hellions back from the Nightbringer. The Reavers struck back at the Warriors and the Lord, their assault bought down two of the warriors Their retaliation was harsh, three of the reavers were cut down, but, being made of stern stuff and as expected from a race that were bred to fight, they stood their ground.
On my third turn the fallen warriors were raised and fired on the Kabalites, bringing down three, the remaining destroyers fired upon the hellions, taking down another two, The Nightbringer posturing with it’s scythe bought another to the ground with an arc of lightning. The Warriors and Lord that were occupied with the reavers finally cut them down. the Kabalites moved in to assault the Destroyer lord, a bold move that fortunately had no effect, other than causing the lord to strike back bring down two of the Kabalites before vanishing from their sight only to reappear from the Monoliths portal.
The Necron Warriors made short work of what was left of the Kabalites, erasing them from the surface of the planet leaving only a cloud of acrid vapour where they once stood. The destroyers applied the same relentless devastation on the last remaining hellions and all that remained of them was shards of metal as the gauss energy all but evaporated them. Vect failed to notice the Monolith coming to bear and too late he saw a huge plume of gauss energy fall from the sky, turning the remaining Wyches to separated atoms that could do no more than drift away on the breeze. With the majority of his force dissolving around him, Asdrubael Vect saw no other option than to seek vengeance for his fallen brothers and sisters, he made to move toward the Nightbringer, the ancient monster gazed quizzically at the form that charged it. A leering grin split The C’tans face as it raised the scythe and sliced through the air, a strong sulphuric odour filled the air as lightning gripped the Dark Eldars' body, a new scent rose, that of burning flesh and hair until the aged body of the leader of the Kabal of the Black Heart exploded as the lightning boiled it from the inside. The Nightbringer, its hunger for death temporarily satiated vanished, leaving no trace but the charred remains of its victims. The remainder of the Necron force returned to the tomb from which they had been awakened, leaving only a small sentry unit active in the event that any Dark Eldar should be seeking revenge for the loss of one of their greatest warriors and leaders. Somewhere deep within the remnants of the intelligence that the Necrons once possessed, they knew that day would come. Let it come they thought as one, let them all come, the undying machines would show no mercy, any that stepped upon the tomb worlds soil would meet the same fate as the last fools that felt they had claim to the land.
*the noise that is made when people spit after hearing a name or word that they find distasteful!
